New Teachers

Welcome to the TCA's new teacher pages. We hope these pages will be useful to you. If you have suggestions for other items to add to this page, please e-mail TCA's web managner: webmaster [at] txclassics [dot] org.

Looking for a job in Texas? The UT Classics department operates at Teacher Placement Website.

Posters, Flyers, and Brochures

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Adopted Textbooks in Texas and Related Resources

Cambridge Latin Course: 

Latin For Americans:

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Books and Teaching Materials

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Organizations and Affiliations

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Exams for Students

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Must-Read Books & Articles

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Mailing Lists/Discussion Groups

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Useful Websites

There are many more useful sites than just the following. Please consult the Links page on this site as well as links on the Latinteach website for more.

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Where Can I Find...?

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Typing with Macrons

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Starting a Latin Club

This is where *I* need some advice. However, first and foremost, if you are going to start a JCL chapter, you will need to check information at the TSJCL website for membership.

But what do you do if you have absolutely no materials? No old tests, etc? First, ask your local teachers. Most will let you photocopy what you have. St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Austin has many old JCL tests archived at thier website.

If you are after certamen questions, the following advice came from the Latinteach list from Michael B Myer:

Just point your browser to: http://www.geocities.com/bwduncan.  The host site is unfortunate, but there's a lot there.

You can also buy books of former questions from the NJCL

And if you need a certamen machine, contact:

Quiz Wizard II for Certamen.
Michael Johnson
Creative Electronic Distribution
5492 Glasgow Place
Columbus, OH 43235
(614) 457-0741

If you have good advice for starting a club, please send it to me to post!

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Designing Club Websites

Need to design a club web page and want access to suitable Roman gifs, jpegs and what not? Or how about some fun but free special effects? Try these pages for starters.

Here's a few sites that provide free web space, etc:

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Making Roman Clothing

Need outfits? No need for me to list it all here. Go to Mary Carroll's Roman Costume page at the Quia website. She has links to all sorts of pages on costuming.

Another good page for Roman clothing is at The Roman Empire site.

Best of all, there are more pictures and instructions on the Roman Life page at the Cetera site.

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Maps

First and foremost, check the Survey of AV Resources for Classics.

The following was advice offered by Tom Elliot on the classics list this year:

1. Rand McNally's educational products division (which absorbed Denoyer-Geppert a few years ago, for those who remember those wall maps) has their catalog online at: http://www.k12online.com.  Click on "The School Store", then "School Store Directory", then under "Specialty Maps" choose (e.g.) "History-World" then select the corresponding "go" button. You'll get a full list of their available products, with descriptions and prices. These materials are not available via Rand McNally's main site (http://www.randmcnally.com)  unless you click on the "Education/K12" link, which takes you to k12online (url above).

2. Routledge produced a series of classical wall maps in the 1980s to early 1990s (http://www.routledge.com/rcenters/classics/series/cwm.html), which are still in print and can be ordered direct (in North America) via http://www.routledge-ny.com/: Use the "search" tool (click the "go" button next to "search" near the bottom left corner of the main page). Then, set the "subject" combo box to "title" or "isbn" and type in the appropriate information below. I have not been able to get the subject: keyword search to return anything useful related to these maps. They also seem to be available, via special order, through Amazon.com (search for title words: "classical wall maps" (n.b. "classical wall map" will return nothing). Here's the list of maps with ISBNs:

a. Ancient Greece and the Aegean, Richard Stoneman (ed.) and Richard Wallace (ISBN: 041503230X). 
b. Alexander's Empire, Richard Stoneman (ed.) (ISBN: 0415056314) c. The Ancient Near East and Lands of the Bible, ?, (ISBN: 0415056306) 
d. The Roman Empire, Richard Stoneman (ed.) (ISBN: 0415056322) 
e. Roman Italy, Richard Stoneman (ed.) (ISBN: 0415032296)

3. Klett-Perthes, the German teaching aids supplier, continues to produce the Haack series of teaching wall maps related to the study of antiquity (and some similar maps on related topics), but these seem only to be available in German or Latin (see below). A catalog and ordering is available through various US dealers, such as http://www.omnimap.com  These maps are available on paper, laminated or cloth, with or without hanging hardware. Here is omnimap's listing: http://www.omnimap.com/catalog/access/kletthis.htm 

4. Nystrom offers sets related to world history, about which I know next to nothing at this point. http://www.nystromnet.com/wh.html 

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I Need a Mentor!

Need a mentor? Try the WINGS Online telementoring project at http://emissary.ots.utexas.edu/wings/.

However, Latin teachers have something better: Join the Latinteach discussion group. You'll have the help of 500 teachers from across the nation and world. You can get advice on how to approach certain textbooks or grammar topics or even classroom management tricks. See the instructions above for joining.

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Books on the History of Classics

Peter Cohee was kind enough to provide this list of books on the history of the pedagogy of classics, particularly Latin, which all teachers should be familiar with.

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How Do You ...? by Donna Gerard

Presented at the TCA Fall Conference 2002 at the University of Dallas.

1. How can you motivate students to want to learn?

a. Put on plays, sing songs, club parties
b. contests
c. awards
d. toga day
e. JCL
f. technology, webquests
g. passion
h. laughter
i. laughter
j. structure for success
k. hands on contact with archeology, coins, jewelry
l. living Latin

2. How do you build administrative support?

a. show SAT scores
b. thank you letters
c. talk to counselors
d. JCL competition
e. National Latin Exam
f. press coverage
g. invite, keep informed
h. enlist parent input
i. PR programs
j. university input
l. websites
m. visit classes

3. How do you inspire students to become teachers?

a. show demand for job
b. money not that bad/ benefits good
c. demonstrate love for subject and share it
d. free stuff
e. stop complaining
f. find scholarships
g. plant a seed
h. university connections
i. remind of high tech unemployment
j. wizards know Latin

4. How do you attract students (especially non-traditional ones) to your program?

a. get other language teachers to promote Latin
b. educate parents through letters, meet the teacher
c. recruit best/brightest
d. student referral
e. PTA programs at feeder schools and own
f. make it fun
g. let students promote themselves
h. ACL materials/ JCL
i. people will think you are smart
j. T shirts
k. maintain visibility
l. get counselors to recruit
m. power point presentations

5. How do we address the complaint that Latin lowers the GPA?

a. improve standards in other languages
b. focus on what we can do for them
c. universities look at more than GPA?
d. raises SAT scores
e. strengthens study skills
f. it doesn't in the long run
g. it is all about learning, long range goals

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All content © Texas Classical Assocation. For permission to reprint articles or to report problems, please contact Andrew Rist: webmaster [at] txclassics [dot] org. Last update:August 13, 2013.